Platelet, a type of particle blood constituent, is an important factor for the blood hemostasis and thrombosis. Conveniently and efficiently determining the numbers, volume, aggregation rate and other parameters of platelet, plays a significant role in the diagnosis, prophylaxis and treatment guidance of thrombosis and related diseases. With the development of technology and in-depth study on platelet, some of the single platelet category or functional testing instrument has been developed in various countries. Such as: existing platelet aggregation analyzer (just a single function to measure the platelet aggregation parameters. The existing analytical instruments mainly based on the principle of turbidimetric method or direct method by measuring the electrode resistance), hematology analyzers or blood cell analyzer (such equipment can only determine the platelet numbers, volume and so on, and not have the ability to measure the same blood platelet repeatedly, consecutively and automatically. That is to say they are unable to determine the platelet aggregation automatically). Therefore, so far an analytical instrument to determine the platelet aggregation rate based on the principle of automatically and consecutively measuring the blood platelets changes in blood sample treated by platelet agonist do not exist. There is no instrument to measure the platelet numbers, volume automatically and further determine the platelet aggregation rate and other multiple parameters simultaneously.
Traditional detection principle used by the platelet aggregation instrument is optical turbidimetry method or electric resistance method. Platelet aggregation detector based on optical turbidimetry method is more common. However, this detector needs a larger amount of blood (2 ml whole blood usually). Before examination it still is pre-requisite to separate plasma, which is a complicated and time-consuming operation. Platelet aggregation analyzer based on resistance method achieves the platelet aggregation rate by measurement of platelet aggregation changes on the electrode, which also needs more than 2 ml whole blood. Furthermore, both methods described above are rarely for clinical use due to a poor reproducibility.